topic Re: regex match dataset but not infile in SAS Programming

regex match dataset but not infile

rudfaden3 — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 13:50:08 GMT

Hallo.

I have a file '~/test.sas' which contains one line

    %metalibm(inlibdw);             * Bankdata DW;

when i run

data test2;
infile "~/test.sas" truncover;
input line $char100.;
commentEnd=prxparse('/(\*\/|;$)/');
end_=prxmatch(commentEnd,line);
run;

I get end_=0.But if I input the line in a dataset

data test3;
line=' %metalibm(inlibdw); * Bankdata DW;';
commentEnd=prxparse('/(\*\/|;$)/');
end_=prxmatch(commentEnd,line);
run;

I get end_=50 wich is corret.

Any idea of why this happens?

Re: regex match dataset but not infile

Tom — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 14:00:45 GMT

You seem to be comparing apples to oranges here.

Change your second data step to define LINE as being of length $100 so that it matches how SAS guessed you wanted the variable defined in the first data step.

Your REGEX needs to account for the trailing spaces that will be present in a SAS variable.

Re: regex match dataset but not infile

data_null__ — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 14:02:19 GMT

trim(line)

Re: regex match dataset but not infile

Oligolas — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 19:06:36 GMT

Hi,

consider the trailing blanks in your line variable with length=100.

You are expecting a semi-colon at end of line, but you have a semi-colon followed by blanks instead

Consider adding \s* to your regex or use strip(line) in prxmatch

data test3;
line=' %metalibm(inlibdw); * Bankdata DW;';
commentEnd=prxparse('/(\*\/|;$)/');
end_=prxmatch(commentEnd,strip(line));
run;

Edit: or trim(line) like @data_null__ said